Israel imposed a stifling blockade on the Gaza Strip after the success of the Islamic Resistance Movement in the 2006 Palestinian elections; its grip was tightened in the summer...

In the Middle East, long-established alliances are shifting dramatically. As one political leader in the region said to me recently: “The ground is shaking under our feet and we...

Sex selection is a dirty phrase in Western countries, but Middle Eastern couples are jumping on fertility technology as changing attitudes make it easier and more acceptable to ‘make...

Iraq’s Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation have published a summary report of ex-post assessment of the prevalence of birth defects, still-births and miscarriages in the country...

Israel’s Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has made no secret of his feelings about the apparent détente between Iran and the US. In a speech to the UN earlier this...

Negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians are, we are told, getting nowhere. It’s taken some people 20+ years to understand that simple fact, but there you go. Ever since...

In a small motel room in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli, within sight of the mountains of Syria, a former Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighter sits with his...

Careful scrutiny of opposition groups that have come to power or who are fighting to gain power reveals that they are often mirror images of the tyrants they replace....

Saudi Arabia has turned into a country of political surprises and shocks almost overnight. First its Foreign Minister, Prince Saud Al-Faisal, refused to give his speech at the UN...

No one, neither inside or outside the occupied territories, would argue over whether or not the Islamic Resistance movement, Hamas, was living through a severe political and economic crisis....

Change is happening in the Middle East, much more than is reflected in a fifteen minute phone call between Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and his US counterpart Barack Obama...

Whilst peace talks between Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are currently underway, internationally deemed illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank continue to mushroom....

The impact of Turkish and Iranian rapprochement will cause the Gulf States to face pressure from Iran and complicate the situation in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. These pressures and...

In March last year Israel became the first country ever to sever ties with the UN Human Rights Council. The decision came after the body decided to investigate Jewish...

Today, they said, was a “quiet day”. There was a child with shrapnel wedged in her neck, a man in the ICU with amputated limbs and an FSA fighter...

“Ahmadinejad (Iran’s previous President) was a wolf in wolf’s clothing. Rouhani (Iran’s new President) is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a wolf who thinks he can pull the wool...

Nearly a year ago, I wrote a column discussing how many people considered Israel to be the biggest loser in the events of the Arab Spring. Have things now...

Twenty years after the Oslo Accords were signed, it can be concluded that they were, quite simply, ‘Israeli’. From the very beginning, the consequences of Oslo have been radically...

Since the US withdrew from Iraq in 2011, the country has slipped off the political and media agenda in the west. But bloodshed in the country is steadily mounting....

The signs are that the Palestinian Authority is playing a key role in enhancing the settlement project in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem through its influential role in...

The level of absurdity in Egypt currently knows no limitations, and it is for this reason alone that I will mention only one particular absurdity that caught my attention....

In an article attributed to the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and published in the New York Times on October 30th, al-Maliki urged the American administration to “be patient...

After the Arab-Israeli war in 1948-1949, the Gaza Strip was left under Egyptian military rule until Israel occupied it during the June 1967 “SixDay War”. When Egyptian President Anwar...

Saudi Arabia is home to Makkah and Medina, the two holiest sites in Islam. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Muslims complete the Hajj pilgrimage to Makkah; one of...

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It is both strange and somewhat unbelievable that Palestinian Authority security services have “invaded” Jenin refugee camp, which is known for its steadfastness in the face of Israeli aggression...

Lately, many people have become afraid of using words like “revolution”, “change” or “historical transition” in regards to the events, developments, and conditions that the Arab world has been...

There are three countries in the world that possess the radioactive polonium used to assassinate the Palestinian president Yasser Arafat; the United States, Russia and Israel. The two superpowers...

Most of the readings of and predictions for the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations anticipate that the two sides will reach a dead end. These predictions are largely based on pessimistic statements...

At a packed conference in Ramallah today, the retired general Tawfik Tirawi, once head of the Palestinian Authority’s feared West Bank intelligence, squarely pointed the finger at Israel for...

Over the last few days, the two tunnels that link the Gaza Strip with the Occupied Territories and span the length of borders, have become well known. A lot...

Yasser Arafat’s assassination, confirmed by the Swiss report detailing the discovery of polonium in Arafat’s exhumed remains, has been mired within a political debate in danger of ensuring further...